Opposites: Suppression
by Animeaholic
Summary: Part 2 of the Opposites trilogy. As Yzak and Flay are forced into one another's presence, they begin to realize that they may have misjudged each other. Emotions run wild as things around them spiral out of control while the two young hearts try to deny and contain uncomfortable, unexplainable, and unwelcome feelings. YxF with AxC.
1. Chapter 1

**Opposites: Suppression **

**A/N:** First and foremost, to all who reviewed and/or added the first Opposites story, or any of my other stories to their favorites, I sincerely thank you very much. To those who didn't but still enjoyed them, thank you very much as well. And for any of you who may not have enjoyed everything about the first Opposites story but still decided to check out the sequel, I truly appreciate it. Wow, two years, I really suck don't I? Those of you who read my short one-shot "Only In My Dreams" last spring may recall that I said I was over 10,000 words into this story and that it should have been posted within a week. Needless to say, that didn't happen. I continued at a strong pace until I hit the 12,000 word mark, and then as school was winding to a close I kept getting sidetracked. Since then I have tried several times to finish this story but could never quite get the spark going. On several occasions I seriously considered dividing this story up into chapters so that I could at least post something up, but stubbornly I wanted to keep the story as a one shot. And now here we are, I am currently over 18,000 words in and I still have a fair amount to write before I can truly consider the story finished. You see, with the first story I wanted to write a light and fun introduction piece to set the stage and reveal all of the characters before I really started to tell the story. That is why it was called "Impressions", it wasn't meant to be rich on plot, only to explain the initial relationship between Flay and Yzak and the basic situations of all of the other characters. This decision proved to be difficult as I really underestimated the amount of story that I would have to tell in this middle chapter and before I knew it I found myself pushing 20,000 words, which is way too long for a one shot intended to be read in one sitting. So I have finally given in and decided to divide this massive 37 page document into chapters to make it easier on everyone. I will post the second chapter very shortly; I just have to read through, fix any errors, and decide what to cut off into it. As for the rest of the story, I have been going at a pretty strong pace since I picked it up last week and I hope to finish it before the end of the month, but there is always the possibility of hitting a snag again so I can't make any promises. I sincerely hope you enjoy this second part of the 'Opposites' trilogy and I would truly appreciate any reviews detailing what you thought of the story and areas where I could improve on. Thank you very much, and for anyone who was looking forward to reading this, I sincerely apologize for the ridiculously long wait.

Oh and in case you haven't "Opposites: Impressions" yet, I suggest you head on over to the YxF section and check it out before reading this one.

**Genres:** Drama, Romance

**Rated:** T for language, violence, and themes

**Summary:** Part 2 of the Opposites trilogy. As Yzak and Flay are forced into one another's presence, they begin to realize that they may have misjudged each other. Emotions run wild as things around them spiral out of control while the two young hearts try to deny and contain uncomfortable, unexplainable, and unwelcome feelings.

**Date Started:** Tuesday, March, 29, 2011

**Date Finished:** Ongoing

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Gundam Seed or any of its characters. Nor do I own any of the music referenced in this fic.

Italics for inner thoughts

00000

The snowflakes fell lightly, brushing up against the coal black lid, nestling in the wreath of colorful flowers that rested on top of it, painting a picture almost too majestic for reality. A small boy, dressed in a tiny black suit, with silver hair and steel blue eyes, unstained by the painful tears of loss, still too young to understand what was happening. The women seated next to him shared the same distinguishable traits, but not the same innocent luxury.

"_Mother…"_ he wonders. _"Why are you so sad mother?"_

He almost asks her but thinks better of it. Mother had been crying all week and he just didn't quite know why. Sure, daddy had to go away for a while, but someday he'd come back, wouldn't he? He looks up and sees the coffin. The priest speaks words he has never heard before, and his vocabulary is years too young to grasp them anytime soon. He stares at the box, thinking, always thinking, but never understanding. Perhaps that was childhood's biggest setback, the unknown. Mother wraps her cold arms around him and draws him into her nourishing embrace.

"_Oh Yzak, it's going to be all right Yzak, we'll get through this."_

Angered, he struggles to figure out what she means, but there is only confusion.

00000

He lurches out of sleep, panting, his shirt bonded to his upper body by a slimy coat of sweat. He struggles to catch his breath. He awakes from this dream not knowing fully what had happened, but certain that he has dreamed of his father again. The feeling in his gut was unsettling to say the least. He threw off the covers and stepped out of his bed. The clock on his wall read 3:36 am.

He walked over to his window, re-tracing the events in his mind. The dream was a recurring one; it had been haunting him for years. He never saw his father's face, most likely because he couldn't remember it. There were pictures of course, but they were tucked away in his mother's photo albums, and Yzak had never really had the motivation to dig them out. He took a deep breath and heaved out an enormous sigh. He couldn't deny the hurt. It hurt now, as it always did in some way or another. But he never really thought about it enough to have it cause any lasting impressions. He didn't even know the man, so what was there to miss? He could try and convince himself that it didn't matter, but his memories disagreed with him. Past ghosts of the Father –Son Fun Days flared in his mind; Dearka on his father's shoulders laughing gleefully as he was guided through the park, Nicol kicking a soccer ball back and forth with his dad, Athrun's father buying him ice cream and then playing a game of checkers with him. And then there was Yzak, all alone, sitting on the bench with a sad look on his face, still not quite old enough to comprehend why there was no one to buy him ice cream, or carry on their shoulders, or kick a ball around.

He shifted his gaze out the window. His eyes were immediately drawn to the neighboring window directly across the street. It had been one week since she had moved here, one very long week. He found however, that he was getting used to her. He may have been in a bad mood when they first met, but he still doubted that they would ever be friends, no matter how close Flay may get with the rest of his friends. She hadn't been bothering him that much lately, but that didn't mean anything. He was sure that she would if he had to spend any length of time alone with her. But for the most part, she clung to the girls at lunch, trying to find her place. Yzak supposed that was the logical thing for her to do, and for some reason, that sparked a thought, something Dearka had asked him years ago, freshman year perhaps. The question was simple, yet for many years it had remained unanswered.

"_You always push people away Yzak, why don't you ever let anybody in?"_

Maybe the reason he never answered that question was because he simply didn't know. It was true, Yzak hardly shared anything with the best friends he had known all of his school life, and he was never open to meeting new people. He always found himself hating for no reason, or very petty insignificant reasons. He was not a pleasant person on the surface, and he never gave anyone a chance. Could Flay have just been another victim of his own selfish ignorance? Either way, he didn't really see any reason to change that for her; he doubted that they would ever get along.

He found his mind racing, as it often did. There was rarely a silent moment in his head, he was always pondering something. In the week since Flay invaded his mind, he had noticed that there was no mother in the Allster household. Perhaps the two of them had more in common than he originally thought. Everyone has a mother, and there are only a couple of likely scenarios for an absence. Were her parents divorced, and if so, why did Flay choose to stay with her father? Did she share the curse of the soil as his father did?

Yzak caught himself inquiring too deeply into issues that didn't concern him. He broke off from these questions and placed himself back under his covers. He had to get up early tomorrow; he didn't want to be late for Cagalli's big party. He drifted off into slumber. It had been a fairly dull Friday afternoon.

00000

Cagalli opened the door with a huge smile on her face.

"Wow Flay, you look simply stunning. I'm really glad you could make it."

"Th-thank you very much." Flay replied shyly. She was wearing a blue dress, a gold bracelet, and her special ruby hair clip that her mother gave her to wear when she was a little girl for formal occasions. She couldn't help but find it strange seeing Cagalli in a dress, although she had only known her for a week, it was clear that Cagalli was a major tomboy.

"Well, are you planning on coming in anytime soon?" Cagalli teased.

"Sorry" she said, and Cagalli chuckled.

They made their way into the living room where the bulk of the guests were conversing and chowing down on chips and pizza. Flay was astounded at the massive size of Cagalli's house. Cagalli's father had been a very successful entrepreneur, and as many rich people often do, he indulged in a huge mansion for his small family.

"Happy birthday. And thanks for inviting me." Flay stated politely.

"Don't even mention it. And thanks."

Flay looked over to see everyone from their usual lunch group gathered together. She noticed that Lunamaria appeared to be giving Athrun a hard time about something, and her interest was sparked.

"What's that all about?" She asked, gesturing towards the quarrelling couple.

"Just about the most annoying shit ever." There was a distinct tone of anger in her voice, but she was smiling. "That Athrun he's so sweet. He shouldn't have to put up with that. We've known each other since pre-school. He used to pull my hair and call me names at one point." Her smile deepened, and Flay could feel the emotion in Cagalli's voice. "He made me a special slide show for my 18th birthday, and Luna's been at his throat over it. She's always been jealous of how close we are." Flay was able to fill in the blanks from there. She had a natural ability to read people's emotions, and she knew that Cagalli and Athrun would always love each other even if they never got involved romantically. How could you ever be friends that long and not have some sort of feelings for each other?

"Oh no, I didn't miss that slide show did I?"

"Don't worry; we aren't watching it until about 8 'o clock. Oh, and you're able to sleep over right?"

"Yes I am." Flay responded.

"That's great, the girls have one big guest room, and the boys have another one."

"Who's staying? For the girls I mean?"

"Everyone except Meyrin and Lunamaria. Meyrin's cool, but Luna's only here for Athrun, they're going home together. It's a shame that Meyrin's sister prevents her from staying over like that."

"Yeah." Flay agreed. She had recently found out that Athrun and Luna had been on the rocks for quite a while, from the looks of things, they weren't improving.

They entered the living room and Flay greeted everyone. Athrun, being the textbook gentleman that he was reputed as, paused his scuffle with Luna to come over and share a few moments with Flay. Everyone else appeared to be having a great time, Dearka was cracking his jokes, earning high fives from some of the guys and playful slaps from Miriallia. Nicol was quietly listening in and sneaking glances at Meyrin. However, there was one blatant omission, Yzak wasn't present. This stirred thoughts in her head. Sure, they hadn't gotten along at the beginning of the week, and didn't show any signs of associating anytime soon, but could he possibly hate her that much that he wouldn't show up to his friend's birthday and have a good time? What had she done to garner such contempt? She did try to establish a friendship; maybe she didn't put all of her effort into doing it, but he really didn't seem to want anything at all to do with her. Curiosity got the better of her and she opened her mouth.

"Where is Yzak?" she asked.

"We don't know, and it's got us a little worried to be honest." Dearka answered "He's never late. Something must be holding him back."

Flay was a generally compassionate person, and she couldn't help but seem concerned by this. Surely she had noticed that Yzak's car was still safely in his driveway when she left right? Now that she thought about it, she wasn't sure at all. Flay never took notice of little things like that. What if something had happened last night? What if he went out to the city and got mugged? Even though she wasn't exactly chummy with him, he was if nothing else, a close friend of her other friends. How would she feel if something had happened to him?

Great, the last thing she wanted was to be flooded with concern for Yzak at a party. But even still, this wasn't the only time she had thought about him since they first met. In fact, Yzak Joule had been on her mind off and on all week. She couldn't quite figure out why, but if she had to trace it to a guess, she would say that it had something to do with the night that she had seen him at his computer, not with one of his wretched scowls on his face, but a calm, almost inviting smile. His enigmatic personality seemed to intrigue her. On the surface, he was nothing more than a basic prick; it was easy to hate people like that. But there was something about him that led her to believe that he was deeper than that. Could it be wishful thinking? Did she secretly desire to get to know him better?

She snapped out of it when Dearka addressed her. Apparently it was quite obvious that she had something on her mind.

"Don't worry hun, the bad boy is alright, trust me." His trademark grin was stamped on his face.

She quickly responded, unaware of the sudden burst of color in her cheeks. "Why would I worry about that jerk?"

"Jerk? Well, I can't really argue with that, but why exactly are you blushing?"

"I… I'm, I…"

She was interrupted by her savior Miriallia. "Leave her alone Dearka, you just caught her off guard, that's all." She winked at Flay. Dearka's grin retracted.

Flay smiled at Miriallia and looked down. Was she really that obvious? She decided to get up and talk to some people to try and take her mind off of things, but she was always wondering, hoping, that Yzak would show up okay.

00000

"Where the hell is Yzak, it's almost time to cut the god damn cake. We can't wait forever here." It was easy to tell that Dearka Elsman was beyond irritated, he was worried sick. The rest of the party guests weren't that far off. " I mean, even if for whatever reason, he decided not to come, there is no way he wouldn't tell any of us. I've texted him about twenty times and he won't reply."

"Even I'm worried now." Athrun said. "This is so unlike Yzak."

"Come on guys" Nicol said "I'm sure he'll show up any second now, and he'll have a great story behind it." Despite his optimistic words, Nicol didn't seem to project much confidence from his voice.

"I hope you're right Nicky." Dearka said. "By the way, I hear you exchanged some words with Meyrin, how'd that go bud?"

Nicol looked down and blushed, very thankful that Meyrin was out of earshot.

"Now isn't the time Dearka, save it." Athrun barked.

"Come on man, I'm just trying to lighten the situation up."

"Well teasing Nicol isn't exactly the best way to do that."

Flay was seated next to Miriallia on the couch. _Does he hate me that bad? Really? He can't be that much of an ass; he'd at least show up for Cagalli, I know he would. Maybe I shouldn't be here, after all, she's known Yzak a lot longer, and if that's why he's not showing up, then it's my fault that everyone is so worried instead of having fun. _

Still, she didn't accept this thought, it just seemed too much for her, after all, Yzak seemed excited enough for the party on Wednesday when Cagalli announced that it would be held a week early. What could have happened? Where was Yzak?

Athrun looked at his watch, Luna was approaching him and he seemed agitated. Dearka was glaring at him, as if expecting a quick answer from his friend. "Alright, I'm going to go over to his house and see if he's there. If you really want to, you can go ahead and start the cake without me if I'm taking too long, but please, wait for the slideshow. I want to be here for that."

Cagalli seemed upset at this. "But Athrun…"

"Look, the last thing I want to do is go on a wild goose chase on your birthday, but I need to be sure that he's alright. This is so out of character for Yzak. He should be here right now, blasting his Judas Priest records and partying with the rest of us."

"Hold your horses Athrun, we might as well call first, no sense in sending you off if it can be avoided beforehand." Nicol suggested.

Flay realized at this point in time that she was the only one in close Proximity to the phone. She felt her heartbeat begin to speed, she had no desire to call Yzak at his home. No matter how worried she was, she was scared of the snarling voice that would meet hers, if there was even an answer at all. A cloud of relief swept past her when Nicol slowly walked towards her. She should have clued in to the obvious, why would they ask her? They knew she didn't know Yzak's phone number, so why would they bother asking her?

"Excuse me." Nicol said with a kind smile on his face.

"Of course." Flay replied, stepping aside so that Nicol could make the call.

He picked the phone of the charger and swiftly punched Yzak's number into the phone. When he hit talk and placed it up to his ear, the room went silent. All eyes were on Nicol.

The phone rang. Once, twice, thrice…

00000

The door opened without warning, causing Flay to jump like a startled cat. Nicol still had the phone on his ear when Yzak stepped in. Flay found relief, she didn't like him that much, but that didn't mean she wanted something bad to happen to him. She was shocked to see that Yzak actually agreed with the formal dress code, she was sure that he would simply show up in his signature leather jacket, Iron Maiden shirt, and faded blue jeans with the knee ripped out. And yet here he stood, a navy blue jacket, fastened together with gold buttons, beneath it was a simple yet neat white dress shirt and a black tie. His image was completed by matching dress pants and shoes shiny enough to reflect their surroundings. She found Yzak to be quite dashing this evening, not that she would tell him, or even so much as admit it to the girls, but still, there was nothing wrong with noticing when somebody made an effort to look good. Even if that person was someone she didn't get along with.

"Yo." He greeted. "Sorry if I'm a little late."

Dearka stepped forward with a big smirk on his face; Flay could tell that a thousand pound weight had just been lifted from his back.

"A little? A turtle with one leg would have beaten you here. What the hell took ya so long anyway you old bastard?"

Flay braced herself for Yzak's inevitable outburst, but it didn't come. He was smiling with clear sincerity. The only time she had ever seen him like this was that night when she first met him. She remembered what Dearka told her when he introduced Yzak at lunch that day.

"_He's a huge prick on the outside, but once you get to know him he's one of the best guys you could ever meet."_

She supposed it must be true, after all, who could possibly know Yzak better than Dearka?

"My fucking alarm clock didn't go off, and I was up pretty late last night." Yzak paused for a slight second as if trying to recall some vague detail. "By the time I was done getting all suited up, I get a call from mom telling me that her car's in the shop and she needs me to pick her up in Aprillius. Then she wanted to stop for lunch. Total pain in the ass, but whatever, I made it in one piece didn't I?"

Dearka was disturbed by this. Something was out of place here. Yzak always set his alarm, and on occasions such as this, he always triple checked. But now was not the time to bring it up, so he stashed his suspicions for later on.

"In one damn dapper piece too I might add. Damn Joules, I don't think I've ever seen you get all dressed up like this. I must say it suits you my friend. I think the female company will be on you like flies on shit tonight you lucky son of a bitch."

"Save it Dearka. I don't need you to tell me how good I look; there are mirrors in my house you know. And stop fucking calling me Joules, how many times do I have to tell you that?"

" He's right." Athrun added. "Is that the suit you're going to be wearing to the prom?"

Yzak's smile faded a little. "And what the hell makes you think I'm going to waste my time going there?"

"Come on man, even you wouldn't skip out on the last big social event of our high school lives, we're all expecting you to be there."

"Well don't get your hopes up, I'm sure I'll have something better to do."

"And what could be better than getting dressed up, hanging out with your buddies, and dancing with chicks?" Dearka asked.

"I don't know, maybe I'll sit back, drink a Pepsi, and play solitaire or something, yeah that sounds fun."

In the short time that Flay had known him, she had quickly caught on to the fact that Dearka's grin always grew slightly right before he was about to say something he thought was clever.

"Yeah, you play your solitaire, the rest of your brothers will have fun playing poke-her."

Yzak stared at Dearka with a blank expression; the room was so silent you could hear crickets. Finally, Yzak snapped the quiet hush with a response to his friend's poor attempt at a clever joke.

"Dearka, you must be losing your touch that was one of the most pathetically contrived attempts to crack a joke that I have ever heard."

The room erupted with laughter; for once Yzak had bested his friend. Dearka looked away and accepted his defeat. Even Flay let out a few chuckles. She couldn't help it; the moment was just too perfect.

"Well, now that Yzak has arrived, shall we get to the cake?" Lacus politely asked once the laughter had quieted.

Everyone else agreed that this was a good idea and turned around to enter the dining room. Yzak walked alongside Cagalli, carrying out typical birthday small talk. Before he came to a complete turn, Dearka made sure to send Athrun a very serious glance to signal his earlier suspicions. Athrun nodded in return, he was quite aware of what was on his friend's mind.

00000

"And that concludes 18 years of the life of Cagalli Yula Attha, a very dear friend of mine, one who I have shared a lot of great memories with. Here's too many more." Athrun concluded his speech as the last slide, a picture of himself and some of the others at Cagalli's 10th, was displayed on the projector.

Wild applause and salutations thundered and echoed throughout the theatre room. Cagalli's eyes met Athrun's, on the verge of tears. She ran up to the stage and grabbed him in a huge embrace. Athrun was caught off guard and almost fell backwards. Yzak was appalled by the look of anger on Luna's face.

"_Why does Athrun put up with that bitch? He's far too good for her. He can't even hug his best friend? What the fuck is wrong with making her a slide show for her birthday?" _

"Athrun, this is the most thoughtful gift anyone has ever given me. Thank you so much."

"It's the least I could do.", he replied with a warm smile.

At this point Luna let out a very audible sigh and started to leave the room.

Athrun's smile faded as he watched his girlfriend ruin the moment for everyone, a look of embarrassment and exhaustion on his face.

"I'm sorry Cagalli, I'll talk to her."

His eyes looked hopelessly upset. He turned around to go after his girlfriend, but something caught his arm. Cagalli turned him back towards her, she was crying now, but only slightly.

"Please, whatever happens, promise me you'll come back. I don't want you to miss out on anything."

He pulled her into another embrace. "I won't.", he assured, and left the room.

00000

As it turned out, Athrun wasn't gone for long at all. Lunamaria decided she needed to go home, which was definitely for the best.

Yzak had now taken over as the DJ for the music jam. Everyone knew that Yzak wasn't going to blast slow pop songs, but he always picked great party music.

Flay loved to dance, it had been one of her favorite hobbies ever since she was a young girl. It was through dancing that Flay started to make her presence known for the first time of the night. She flew across the floor with such grace, catching everyone's eyes and captivating their attention and applause. She was surprised that she found Yzak's heavy edged music so easy to move to, it had great rhythm.

Although it bugged him that she was being such a show off, even he was impressed by the way she moved. He studied the curves of her body and the flow of her motions, so perfectly matching Shark Island's classic song "Shake For Me." Yzak fought to force himself out of her enchanting lure.

"_Sure, she's a good dancer. So what? Lots of people are. I still can't stand her. The way she moves has nothing to do with my disgust for her character."_

Adolescent lust could never be silenced. It was a force that even the strongest of individuals, such as Yzak Joule, had to succumb to, at least in small amounts.

"_But those hips, the way they sway. Her hair. Damn it, why the hell can't I stop thinking about this shit. I need to occupy myself."_

An arm slung lazily around his shoulder. He turned his head to see Dearka's evil winking grinning face. "That's pretty amazing eh bro? Even you have to admit that she's on fire tonight. Why don't you ask her to dance?"

"_He's like a fucking predator; he smells things like this and pounces on them. Fucking bastard, always showing up to piss me off."_

"Why don't you go fuck yourself?"

"I don't need to my friend; Miri is plenty satisfying when it comes to that. Maybe if you weren't such an uptight hard ass all the time you'd know what I was talking about." Dearka retorted.

"Why the fuck are you and Athrun always on me about shit like this? Didn't we just go through this last week? I have no desire to get mixed up in shit like that. I mean, look what Athrun has to put up with; I do not have the patience for that. So fuck off it!"

Warrant's classic part rocker "Cherry Pie" had just started to pound through the speakers when she twirled by him. A sweet miasma of flowers shot up his nose. It was a soothing aroma, a gentle one.

She was so caught up in the moment and the encouragement of her peers that she lost sight of where she was going. She didn't even notice the silver hair behind her; she was far too caught up in the music to hear his voice. She spun too fast and lost her footing.

"_Oh no! How could I possibly make such an embarrassing mistake?"_

She squinted her eyes shut and prepared for the collision. It took a second for her to clue into the fact that it was not the floor she had fallen onto, but a set of arms. Still slightly confused, she looked up to see who it was. She was struck with shock and terror when she looked into the eyes of her savior, she knew she was blushing, the situation had just gone from embarrassing to downright awkward, unpleasant, and uncomfortable. Of course, she had fallen into the arms of Yzak Joule, who looked equally mortified.

"_Why him? Why does it have to be him? Oh god, please, don't let this spark a fuse."_

Yzak cursed his own courtesy. Of course the girl who slipped in front of him had to be her, and he just had to throw down his arms out of instinct. He was horrified now. Looking into the eyes of this women he despised, but couldn't help noticing, surrounded by everyone he knew, his best friend surely ready to drive in his humiliation.

The silence was a long one, as both Yzak Joule and Flay Allster were drawn into each other's eyes both of them blushing, both wishing that they could be anywhere but here. But to everyone around them, the silence was barely noticeable. Unfortunately, for Yzak, it was broken by Dearka.

"Now that is what I call one hell of a catch." Dearka was, of course, smirking as he spoke, proud of his play on words.

She squirmed away and regained her footing.

"Th-thank you very much…" She couldn't bear to look him in the eyes when she said it.

"Watch where the hell you're going!" He barked.

She wasn't surprised, she got the reaction she expected, and as he turned away, she found herself wondering why she had bothered to worry about a jerk like this. Why had she bothered to even think about him at all?

As he walked away, not knowing where he was going but not wanting to face her anymore, he scorned himself for being so weak, for letting his guard down and having her enter his mind, even if it was only for brief periods, he should have nothing to do with her at all. Her existence didn't matter to him. He felt Dearka's hand clap him on the back, but this time, he beat Dearka to the draw.

"Don't even fucking say it Dearka. You'll regret it, I assure you."

Dearka sighed and retracted his hand.

00000

"She's always fine when it's just us." Cagalli said, her voice lightly trembling. "But whenever Athrun's there, she is consumed by jealousy, it's so horrible."

"Well, to be honest, it isn't really that hard to understand. I don't agree with her actions, but we all know how much she's liked Athrun over the years, and the two of you are so close. It's quite easy to see why she thinks you guys have feelings for each other." Lacus responded softly.

"That's right. The ugly truth is that the situation is ruining your friendship with Luna. From the way things are going, they won't last much longer." Mirialia said.

"Even so, there is no reason why she should act like that at the party. I mean, if she knew she was going to be that upset, she shouldn't have bothered coming."

"She probably wanted to limit your contact with him. I mean, come on Cagalli, she knows what we all know." Mirialia added.

"Oh? And what's that?"

"Come on Cagalli, you know that we know the truth. Everyone would have to be blind not to see it."

Cagalli looked down, tears beginning to swell in her amber eyes. She had loved him for so long. So many times she came so close to having him, but they had both been cowards, neither one able to speak up and risk their friendship. Cagalli had not been able to bring herself to date any other guys; the only one she really wanted was Athrun. Even though she supported his relationships, it hurt her deeply to see him with other girls. When he was with Luna, she could always see the emptiness in his eyes, she knew that he wanted her as well, and that empty look cut her up inside. The days that they had spent with each other over the years had given her memories that she would always cherish and love above all others. They would have the best of times when they went to the movies or the amusement parks together, but when Cagalli got home at night she would cry her heart out, hating herself for loving him so much, detesting the fact that she could not move on, tortured by her own fear. She needed him, desired him more than anything else in the world. She would give anything just to have him. They were truly perfect for each other, but their friendship got in the way, it overcomplicated everything and caused them both a great deal of pain.

Flay could feel the sorrow and angst resonating from Cagalli's young heart. She was a very caring person for the most part, and it saddened her to see her friend this way. She had not been around long, but it did not take a psychiatrist to understand the situation.

"You really love him don't you Cagalli?" Flay asked.

Cagalli's tears amplified, but she managed to smile through the anguish. "More than I could ever tell you guys." She admitted.

She fell into her knees and let it all out, as she had done on countless nights before, where all she wanted to do was hold him. She prayed that the boys could not hear her from the room down the hall. Lacus took her into her arms, Mirialia joined in, and soon all four girls held each other in a bond of pure friendship. For the first time since she had moved here, Flay felt as though she truly belonged, and although it may have been selfish for her to spare a few thoughts for herself at a time like this, it felt fantastic.

Still inside of the embrace, Mirialia began to text Dearka

00000

"I just don't know any more man, it finally felt like I was moving on. I mean I really liked Luna and as time went on, I started to think about her more and Cagalli less. But then she started acting all jealous and bitchy whenever I talked to Cagalli. Hell she even got mad at me for waving to her one time. It's just too much pressure; I don't know what I can do."

Yzak, who hadn't really contributed anything to the conversation at hand, had been growing quite impatient with his friend's meaningless whining. He was often infuriated by how common it was for smart people like Athrun to be so stupid sometimes. Yzak had always grown up believing that you should never try to lie to yourself, especially out of fear. You would never find true happiness that way.

"You can pick up your balls and stop being such a fucking coward for starters." Yzak snapped, much to the surprise of the other boys.

"Yzak!" Dearka spouted.

"Shut the hell up Dearka, I'm trying to help the bastard."

Dearka opened his mouth for a rebuttal but was cut off before he could get anything out of it.

"You've been living in denial for years now. You keep on lying to yourself, pretending that it's going to be better for you to push away the only girl you really love. I'm so sick of this shit, you're both crazy about each other, but instead of letting yourself be happy, you keep trying to force yourself into relationships with girls that are hot for you so that you can "Move on and maintain your friendship." It's obvious what you need to do; you keep walking into the same fire. It's time that you realize what you truly want, stop hiding, stop running, and grab it."

Dearka was quite surprised but had grown used to his friend's random outbursts over the years.

Athrun seemed angry and stood up to be at eye level with his critic.

"Okay, yeah, maybe you're right. And perhaps that does make me a coward. But who the hell are you to start yelling your judgment at me. What the hell makes you so fucking different? If I'm a coward, then so are you. You fear the problems that relationships bring and refuse to face them. You tell us that love is a waste of time, but how the hell would you know? You've never even been in a relationship. Don't even try to lie to us; we know that you've liked girls before; you just can't let yourself accept it. And because of all of this twisted logic, you push everyone away. Remember Shiho? Maybe you could have had something great with her, but you never let her in, you just pushed her away with a complete negligence for her feelings, and then she moved away. And now, you're faced with another opportunity. I'm sure if you weren't always such a reclusive asshole you and Flay could easily be good friends at least. Did you know that she asks about you sometimes when you aren't around? Did you know that she was worried about you while you were off doing god knows what tonight? You saw how she blushed when you caught her; you see how she sneaks glances at you from time to time. And yet instead of trying to get to know her you simply snap at her and give her dirty looks all of the time. "

Yzak was livid; his face was flushed with rage. He erupted, not caring how loud he was. He was incredibly lucky that he didn't wake up anyone in the house, and perhaps even luckier that the girls didn't hear him.

"What are you insane! I could care less about that weak and pathetic girl. And I guarantee that if you honestly think she likes me, or even has a tiny infatuation with me, then you're a complete fool. She hates me just as much as I do her. If she acts worried, it's only so that she doesn't come off as an uncaring bitch to everyone around her. She and I could never be friends, we're complete opposites!"

The word echoed in his head _opposites._

"I would never open myself up to someone like her, I would never trust anyone like her, and there is no possible way I could ever love someone like her!"

Nicol was so flustered that he was almost hyper-ventilating. There was nothing he hated more than seeing his best friends fight like this. Athrun's expression had not changed. Dearka simply looked on in silence. He couldn't take sides, because he knew that both of them were right. Yzak gasped and panted to regain his breath. He spoke again, this time much more calmly. "And what the hell do you mean god knows what? I told you exactly what I was doing."

"Yzak! Why the hell do you always freak out when this subject is brought up? The truth is you have no idea if you could love someone like Flay, you don't even give her a chance. She's shy around you, but she is a very accepting and generous person, you'd know that if you weren't such a selfish judgmental asshole!"

"How the hell do you know how fucking good of a person she is? She's only been here for a week for fuck sake!"

"I know a hell of a lot more than you! I actually took the time to get to know her. I see the good qualities in people, we all do. Why do you think we always stick up for you when people call you an asshole? Because we know you're a great friend underneath it all. But you, all you see is bad. When you first saw her, you called her pathetic because she was shy and scared. It was her first day! What the hell do you expect? And because of your weak first impressions, you guarantee that you could never be her friend, you act as though you have her all figured out when in fact you don't know shit!"

Thoughts raced through his mind, thoughts of her. Her graceful figure majestically dominating the dance floor.

"I'm sorry to tell you this Yzak, but everyone deserves a fair chance. You're a good person, and so is Flay."

Flay. The name echoed off the walls of his skull. Flay, whom he had so bitterly rejected on the first night they met, Flay who had invaded his life and made the past week miserable, Flay who had looked so striking on the dance floor, Flay whom he hated but couldn't help but notice. _Flay_.

"Don't say it! I don't want to hear it anymore! Don't say that name again!"

Dearka had seen enough, he threw himself in between the tight barrier of his two best friends and pushed them away from each other.

"That's enough you two. You both just need to fuck off!"

"Dearka you bastard!" Yzak yelled.

"Knock it off Yzak! The truth is, you're both right, but you're both acting like children. And the worst part is that you're both trying to help each other. You both need to calm down and take some breaths. Yzak, everything Athrun says has merit. You do lock people away, and it would make you happier if you didn't. Sure maybe you aren't wrong about Flay, but maybe you are, and the only way to find out is to give it a try for once. He's not telling you to force yourself to fall in love with her, he's not even saying that you'll get along with her; he's just saying that she deserves a chance, for everyone's sake. We can't have an unnecessary rift in the group. I ask the same thing of you, please, just give her the opportunity to get to know you, and you to know her. I understand that this isn't something you like to discuss, but you have to stop freaking out whenever one of us brings it up. We're your friends, all we want is to see you truly happy, and we feel as though you're hurting yourself by living in ignorance like this. How will we ever get along if you freak out every time someone brings up an important issue?"

Yzak stepped back and looked down in shame. He should have known better then to just fly off the handle like that. For the first time in a while, Yzak Joule felt like a real prick.

"And you Athrun. It's time. You need to stop running from desire and accept the truth. Stop, turn around, and make up the lost distance. You and Luna weren't meant to be, and I know she'll be hurt, but at least you can say that you really tried for her. It's now or never my friend, take what you truly yearn for, fulfill your happiness. It's all that's left for you to accomplish, and the time has come." Dearka smiled.

"B-but…"

Much to everyone's shock, Yzak stepped forward and placed a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"Listen man, I guess what your telling me makes sense in a way, but now just isn't the time. I don't want you to worry about me, it's your moment, don't waste it on a lost cause. I'm sorry I overreacted, but it needed to be said, because Dearka's right, the time is now."

Yzak opened the door and gave Athrun a gentle push into the hall way. Athrun looked back at his friends, all of them smiling. The looks on their faces gave him all the confidence he would ever need. It was these moments, when you were with the people that meant the most to you, and you both shared a mutual understanding of this importance, that made life worth living.

"Now go to her, show her how much she means to you." Dearka said with a wink.

Athrun smiled. "Thanks guys."

Yzak closed the door.

00000

She watched on pleasantly with the other two girls as Cagalli nervously stumbled down the hall towards Athrun, who was waiting for her in the middle of it. The two of them met, the atmosphere was thick with young love, the kind of wholesome warmth that Flay admired, and hoped that she would one day find. They stood together, blushing, not saying anything, until finally Cagalli burst into tears and grabbed Athrun in a tight embrace.

"Oh Athrun…"

Athrun smiled deeply, he said nothing, he didn't have to, feelings were always more powerful than words could explain. Words were cheap, and thrown around without meaning. He simply tilted her head upwards and kissed her passionately, an action long overdue. As she looked past the scene, she could see the boys were also looking out from their doorway. And in this moment, she saw perhaps the one thing she thought she would never see. Yzak Joule was smiling. Sure, everyone was smiling, but it was unlike any of the others, she truly felt something inside. It was a deep welcoming smile that any women would fall hopelessly into, and although she was sure she was hallucinating, she saw the faintest twinkle in Yzak's eyes. But the strangest part of the whole ordeal wasn't the look, but what happened when he realized that she was staring at him, the sparkle in his eyes did not fade, but it seemed to shine even brighter, she even felt as though he was happy to see her, but that was unheard of. There was no scary twisted grimace of anger, or even a trace of displeasure in those icy blue eyes, only beauty. Flay Allster had never been quite so intrigued by a man in her entire life.

00000

Yzak Joule had spent most of his night and early morning thinking of what his friends had said. Could he perhaps have been wrong? Was being a recluse truly the reason that he was feeling this emptiness? He strode over to the window and fixed his vision on the room across the street. The curtains were open. But Flay wasn't there. He smirked a little bit; amused with the fact that one woman could make such an impact in such a small amount of time, and she didn't even appear to realize it. He thought of her face, how scared she looked when he caught her, how nervous and weak it had been when he first saw her, and most recently, how pleasant it appeared to him from the doorway last night. Could he have actually been wrong about her? Could his friends actually be right about him?

No. He was not that shallow, and his friends were fools for thinking that way. But he knew that his friends would never drop it, they wouldn't leave him alone unless he proved them wrong. And that was exactly what he planned on doing. He was going to make an attempt to get to know her better, but not because he thought it would make him happy. He was going to learn about her, and find a reason to hate her that would be sufficient evidence to prove to his friends that he was right. It wouldn't be hard at all, he was sure of that. The only challenging part would be finding a way to approach the situation; and putting up with her without throwing up or losing his temper of course. He raked his brain for ideas.

_How?_

A golden opportunity arose when Yzak was called into the living room to discuss something with his mother.


	2. Chapter 2

**Opposites: Suppression**

**A/N: **Well here it is, the next chapter. I was thrilled by the positive receptions I got from the first chapter and so I really hope that this one is just as enjoyable and doesn't disappoint.

Thank you very much to Kkornelia and WestAnimeBrigade for the reviews!

**Genres:** Drama, Romance

**Rated:** T for language, violence, and themes

**Summary:** Part 2 of the Opposites trilogy. As Yzak and Flay are forced into one another's presence, they begin to realize that they may have misjudged each other. Emotions run wild as things around them spiral out of control while the two young hearts try to deny and contain uncomfortable, unexplainable, and unwelcome feelings.

**Date Started:** Tuesday, March, 29, 2011

**Date Finished:** Ongoing

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Gundam Seed or any of its characters. Nor do I own any of the music referenced in this fic.

Italics for inner thoughts

00000

Flay couldn't seem to take her mind off of Yzak Joule. She wanted to know what it was that lied beneath that rocky surface; she wanted to meet the person that gave her that look. All of her friends insisted that once you got to know him, Yzak was one of the best friends you could ever have. If that was true, then why was he always such a bastard? She found it shameful that she wanted to be his friend, but she couldn't really deny it anymore. Even so, she knew it wasn't going to happen. Even if her friends were right about him, there was no way he would ever consider her a friend, and if she ever tried, it would just make him hate her even more.

Why did she care so much? The few times he had even bothered to address her had resulted in some of the rudest encounters of her entire life. But still, there was something about him, something that she desired, but she couldn't possibly imagine what.

Her father opened his mouth, a mild amount of concern in his voice. "Are you okay honey? You look kind of pale."

"I'm fine dad."

"You sure?"

"Of course."

As they approached their house, she glanced over at Yzak's driveway, and was met with an unsettling sight. There was more than just one car, there were two. She recognized one as being his, and the other one belonged to Mrs. Joule. Hadn't Yzak said that her car was in the city getting fixed? Yzak had left only minutes before her father had arrived to pick her up, so there was no way he could have taken her to get it, there simply wasn't enough time. And how often did cars get fixed so quickly? Especially considering it was the city, and there would most likely be a fairly long waiting list. How could she have gotten into town to pick it up?

These thoughts were quite silly, she knew that it wasn't her business and whatever happened clearly didn't matter to her. Surely Mrs. Joule had plenty of friends who could have taken her, and Flay had no way of knowing how many cars were waiting to be fixed. It was quite possible that Mrs. Joule could have gotten her car back by now. But still, something seemed out of place.

"Oh, by the way Flay, I have good news for you."

As these announcements always do, it caught her attention. "Oh, and what's that daddy?"

"I've figured out a transportation arrangement to get you to and from school."

00000

"I've made an arrangement with Mr. Allster. You see Flay needs a method of transportation to and from school. He asked me if you'd be up for it, and told me that he would provide a share of the gas money in exchange. I told him that you'd love to."

Yzak Joule stood in his living room feeling a strange mix of anger and pleasure. On one hand, he had found his opportunity to begin his campaign to prove Athrun and Dearka wrong. On the other, he considered driving time to be his own personal relief, he much preferred driving alone, and just about the last person he could imagine driving to school with was Flay Allster. Yzak understood the issue. The community of Junius had never spent money on bus travel. It was a small community, and it had been decided long ago that most children could walk to school if their parents couldn't drive them. Not exactly the best way to save money, but as far as Yzak knew there hadn't been much complaining over the years.

The part that really irritated him was the fact that his mother had simply accepted the proposal. She didn't even give him a choice in the matter, or even any time to think about it. But there was really no point in arguing with his mother, it would only end in a lost cause, and Yzak refused to disrespect the woman who gave him life.

Even though the idea repulsed him, he would drive her to school. At least he could make some good come out of it.

00000

Her heart sank into her stomach like a heavy stone being dropped into the ocean as Yzak pulled into her driveway and honked the horn. She had refused to put up a fight with her father; she just didn't have the heart to do it. But she was scared, so very scared. She knew that Yzak would absolutely hate this idea, and she also knew that she was the perfect candidate for him to vent his incredible frustration. The best she could hope for were long and awkward silences, just like the walk back from the café last week. She wobbled towards the cars passenger door, barely able to stand from shaking so badly. She opened it up, braced herself for his screams, and fell into the seat, sure that he was about to bite her head off.

But there was nothing. Of all the surprises from Yzak Joule, this one was by far the biggest. He simply turned his head and looked at her. After what couldn't have been more than a few seconds but felt like minutes, he said "As long as you're driving with me, you don't complain about the music. It's my music all the time. No compromises, no exceptions. Got that?"

His voice was curt and rude but far from angry, and not at all what she had expected. It was actually an understandable request, so she responded "Uh, yeah. I understand."

"Good."

That was all. No name calling, no shouting, no dirty looks. Flay was flabbergasted.

As they drove on with Queensryche's 1990 album "Empire" blasting through Yzak's sound system, he drummed his fingers on the wheel, trying to think of the best way to provide an illusion of interest.

"_Dammit Yzak come on! Think of something to say! Something that isn't too nice, but inviting enough to draw her into conversation and maybe start to feel more comfortable around you."_

He could only think of one possible thing to say, and decided to go for it.

"_I guess it'll have to do. If I bring it up then maybe it will make her feel more included or something. That can be the first step to making her feel more secure around me. Here goes nothing then."_

"So, did you hear about Lunamaria last night?"

Flay jumped a little bit. He was asking her a question. Yzak was talking to her. She remembered what Lacus told her last night, and struggled to formulate it into a sentence.

"Ah, yeah. Lacus said that she was taking the break up really harshly. She told me that she sent Cagalli a whole mountain of hate texts."

Her voice was trembling, and that made him wince, but he did his best to cover it up.

"Yeah, understandably so I guess, she really did like Athrun a lot. The problem is that it's really ripped a hole in her friendships; she's upset and saying a bunch of things that she doesn't really mean. It's hurting all of the girls; no one wants to lose her as a friend, not even Athrun and Cagalli."

"What about you?"

She froze; she knew that she shouldn't have asked that question, it just slipped out.

Yzak considered it for a few seconds, and then answered.

"It doesn't really matter to me I suppose, we didn't really talk all that much. It does suck for the others though."

Flay still thought she was dreaming. The last time Yzak had spoken to her he snapped at her vulgarly, and now here he was, the same guy, on a day when he should be roaring like a wild lion, talking to her as if they had gotten along for quite some time. What was the deal? She and Yzak were actually having a conversation, even stranger; he had been the one to initiate it. What was happening here? Had Yzak's friends made him a bet that he couldn't be nice to her all week? That must have been it, something like that was right up Dearka's alley.

The rest of the drive was filled with casual small talk, which was awkward, but not at all unpleasant. Yzak had even been courteous enough to ask her how she was adjusting to the new neighborhood, and if she was still missing her old school. She couldn't believe it! He was asking her the kinds of questions that a friend would ask her! She had actually had a full and to be perfectly honest somewhat enjoyable (although also pretty awkward) conversation with Yzak Joule! She couldn't explain this phenomenon. Perhaps the strangest thing of all was that she was comfortable with him this morning. Not even just comfortable, but also uplifted and strangely, warm inside? If she had not been careful enough to suppress it, she would certainly have let a little smile slip across her face.

"_Must be relief_…" she convinced herself. _"Yes that's all it is, relief. Relief that things seem to be looking up."_

The school was in sight. He had done it! He had managed to carry out an honest conversation with her for an entire car ride without going insane. And soon he would be free; he wouldn't have to be alone with her for another six hours! It was a successful start to his mission; he had been able to put up with being alone with her and exuded a civil nature while doing so! He had already won half the battle, surely it would all be downhill from here! And it wasn't even that bad.

He quickly caught himself. _"But still bad."_ He told himself before his thoughts could drift off into unwelcome territory.

They pulled into the school parking lot; Yzak could see his group of friends standing no more than 10 meters away. Dearka was staring right at him with a dumbfounded look on his face.

"_Fuck. That sickening smirk is going to be on his fucking face in a matter of seconds."_

Still nothing Dearka could do or say could dismantle his victorious spirit. He felt great, empowered even, and very proud of himself. And no matter how hard Dearka tried he would not be able to ruin that, he could not take this victory away from him.

Sure enough, as the two of them exited the vehicle, Dearka made his trademark face. He began to open his mouth but Yzak flipped him the middle finger before he could say it. He sped ahead of Flay to meet the group.

"Fuck you Elsman! Don't start!" Although he was yelling, Yzak had a big grin on his face. Dearka was amazed.

"_Wow, maybe he's finally going to start lightening up."_ Dearka thought as his friend closed the distance.

"No problem Joules, just make sure you tell me all about the fun you had last night."

Yzak didn't quite clue into what his friend was hinting at and looked quite confused. The expression on Yzak's face was priceless and everyone burst out laughing. Suddenly it hit him, and he was no longer grinning.

"You fucking bastard!"

Dearka simply kept on laughing. "I'm sorry man; you know I can't help it."

"Yeah, and I also know that you're a bastard." Yzak's smile returned.

Flay watched all of this from a distance before she met up with the group, searching for a reason why Yzak might be in such a good mood. Whatever the cause, Yzak's smile made her smile, and she had no idea why.

00000

Until that point in the afternoon, it had just been an ordinary Monday. But as Yzak made his way out to the parking lot to prepare to go home, thinking of how much better the beginning of this week had begun in comparison to the last, his ordinary day was turned upside down.

He suddenly noticed the huge crowd of people. Among them, he could see the girls, Flay was with them, Mirialia was in tears and screaming while Lacus held her back. He also noticed Sai Argyle, a nerdy kid who Yzak had bullied up to the eighth grade, and his friend Kuzzey Buskirk, a short, pathetic, young man who was so twitchy and nervous that you'd think someone had a gun to his head. He looked around but did not spot Athrun, Nicol, or Dearka. He looked for their cars, Athrun's was gone, Dearka's was still parked in its space.

"_What the fuck is going on here?"_

He pushed through the crowd. His eyes grew wide as he saw Dearka lying on the gravel. Toelle Koenig was standing in front of him, kicking him in the stomach. The rage Yzak felt was unlike any other, his teeth chattered, his blood simmered up to his face, painting his expression with pure rage. His best friend for years, the person he once played 'go fish' with for cans of Pepsi, the man he built a clubhouse with when he was 8 years old. And now here he was, jumped by some arrogant son of a bitch who felt as though he reserved some kind of right to revenge.

"_How dare he? And right in front of Mirialia!" _

Yzak was wild. He had never been this angry in his entire life, and he was famous for his temper. He couldn't even try to control himself, and even if he could he would have still taken the same course of action.

He lunged forward, screaming in a mad growl. Toelle jumped and turned around just in time for his face to collide with Yzak's fist. There was a sickening crunch and blood bursted out of Toelle's nose. He staggered for a second and Yzak served his stomach another strike. Toelle fell back and landed hard on his lower back, tears racing down his cheeks and blood smothering his face.

"Toelle!" Sai yelled and stepped forward. Yzak turned his anger on Sai his face a twisted mosaic of fury.

"You better step the fuck back or I'll smash your four-eyed fucking face through that god damn windshield you motherfucker!" Sai stepped back, not daring to intervene.

Toelle struggled on his knees and Yzak smashed his foot into his ribs, causing him to hack up blood and roll over onto the ground. Yzak stomped on his head and ground it into the pavement, ripping small cuts in his face. The tears fled into these cuts and stung his face with vicious, hot, pain.

Flay stood in absolute awe, not understanding why this was happening. Her heart raced in her chest like a horse. One minute she's outside with her friends waiting for Yzak to take her home, and then, as Dearka comes up to say goodbye to Mirialia, this brown haired kid came up from behind him and clubbed him in the back of the neck. She had no idea what the situation was, but she was relieved when she first saw Yzak. Athrun and Nicol had left a couple of minutes before the event took place, and Yzak seemed to be Dearka's only hope for a rescue. The entire ordeal was the most disturbing thing she had ever witnessed, and she just wanted it to hurry up and end.

Yzak stepped back and turned his attention to Dearka. His eyebrow was split open a little bit and there was a small trail of blood running down his face. Yzak reached out his hand and helped him to his feet. He gestured towards Toelle's miserable figure.

"Take your fill."

Dearka looked down at Toelle, who was pleading for Dearka to leave him alone. Dearka had no sympathy for this piece of shit. He reared back and connected three swift kicks into his stomach. He finished off by spitting on him. He looked at Sai and smirked at him.

"I guess that's the real difference between people like me and garbage like you. I have friends who have the balls to back me up."

Yzak had reached his car and opened up the door.

"Get in the car Dearka!"

"But Yzak-"

"No fucking buts just get in the goddamn car now!"

"Wait!" Mirialia cried out.

"I'll drop him off at your house when we're done, don't worry." Yzak managed to reassure Mirialia through his immense rage

Dearka walked over and gave her a kiss. "I'll see you soon babe, me and Yzak really need to discuss this."

"B-But."

"Don't worry; we'll have plenty of time later." He gave her another kiss and got into Yzak's car. Yzak backed out of the parking space and started to drive away.

"_Oh dear…"_ Flay thought. "_How am I going to get back home? Surely he has forgotten about me, and even if he hasn't, I'm sure he has no intention of driving me."_

Contrary to her doubts, Yzak's car came to a screeching halt right in front of her. The sound made her ears ring.

"Are you coming or what?" he barked out the window.

"Yes… Thanks."

"Whatever, just hurry up."

She got into the back seat and they sped off.

00000

As they drove on Yzak instructed the blond headed boy to fish out a good CD to put in. Dearka flipped through the CD wallet, decided upon the debut album of the L.A. Guns, an old favorite that the two of them used to listen to together down by the river on Yzak's portable stereo with popsicles dripping down their hands in the long lost days of summer's past. He slid it into the slot and cranked the volume. Yzak pulled out a handful of Kleenex out of the box on the dashboard and handed it to him.

"Clean yourself up Elsman." He told him, and then turned to face Flay in the back seat. She had a helpless expression of fear and confusion on her face, not quite unlike the one from her first day but not nearly as pathetic.

"I'm going to drop you off at your place and then we're going for a drive." He addressed her, ensuring that she understood that she wouldn't have to stay in the vehicle any longer than necessary.

"Okay." She said quietly. She was still amazed that Yzak had even bothered to pick her up at all, and despite the awkward and unpleasant situation, she was certainly very grateful.

Yzak returned his dialogue to Dearka. "So, what the fuck happened?"

Dearka carefully finished mopping off what was left of the blood, opened the window, and discarded the crimson wad of tissue paper into the wind.

"Well, you already know the background, so I suppose going through all of that again wouldn't be relevant."

He paused for a second and looked back at her with a smile.

"Don't worry honey, I'm sure you're confused, but Mirialia will fill you in on the entire thing later, just don't be afraid to ask her about it."

"Alright." She responded, but she really didn't have any intention of being the one to bring it up to Mirialia, she would simply hope that Mirialia would fill her in on her own accord.

"Never mind that Dearka, just answer my question." Yzak impatiently ordered.

"Well, there really isn't all that much to tell. On my way over to say goodbye to Miri, give her kisses and all of that mushy shit you hate, I walked past their pathetic group. I guess the idea of seeing us together must have gotten to him, because the next thing I knew something crashed down on the back of my neck."

Despite what he had just said, Dearka had stretched out his trademark grin. It was amazing to her how he could be so laid back after what had just happened.

"But enough about that, what I wanna know is, what's the deal with you two?"

Yzak jerked in his seat causing them to swerve into the passing lane a little bit. He quickly regained control and straightened out the car.

"Are you fucking serious? You ask that now? What the fuck is wrong with you? You just got fucking jumped and that's the most important subject on your mind? You're such a weird bastard!" Yzak screamed, his voice thoroughly laced with both anger and disgust.

Dearka burst out laughing.

"I'm serious man. Why the hell is it that you live for shit like this?"

"Well you know, I like to keep on top of things, and from the looks of it, so do you, at least last night."

"Dearka I will pull over and drop your ass on the side of the fucking road!"

Dearka seemed to ignore the threat and shone his grin upon Flay.

"Well, since Yzak doesn't seem to want to fess up, maybe you could enlighten me honey."

Flay blushed and looked away, wishing that Dearka had never brought it up, wanting nothing more than for him to take Yzak's advice and shut up.

Yzak brought the car to a screeching stop on the side of the road. He threw himself out the door and stomped towards the passenger side door.

Flay found herself suddenly having the courage to speak up for once. "You shouldn't have done that…"

Dearka seemed surprised that Flay had opened her mouth, but before he could react, his door swung open.

"Get the fuck out!" Yzak hollered

"Man, come on…"

"I warned you Dearka !"

"Look, I'm sorry alright, now can we please get going?"

Yzak paused for a couple of seconds, panting to regain his breath.

"Consider this your last warning!" He slammed the door shut in Dearka's face and re-entered the car.

A long and uncomfortable silence plagued the three of them on the way to the Allster residence. Yzak appeared to be maintaining a calm composure, taking in the sounds of the music and nothing else. She had noticed that he had been taking quick and casual glances at her through the rearview mirror but didn't think too much of it. They pulled into her driveway and she undid her seatbelt and stepped onto her property. Dearka stuck his head out the window and bid her farewell; she thanked him and began to ascend the steps of her front porch. She turned briefly to steal one last glance at Yzak behind the wheel, assuming that he wouldn't even notice. Much to her bewilderment, not only did he notice, but he also lent her a nod of acknowledgement. She watched as they pulled out and shifted their direction back down the road. Turning towards her door, a bright and innocent smile took over her face, it's glow was genuine, she had been struck by a pleasant vibe from a person who most likely wouldn't have cared if she had just dropped dead on her doorstep a mere week before.

"_Looks like things really are starting to get better between us…"_

Flay Allster found herself subtly looking forward to seeing Yzak Joule again.

00000

"It's nothing like that Dearka, god damn it, how many times am I going to have to tell you that before you shut the fuck up and believe me." Yzak impatiently stated for what felt like the hundredth time as he watched a rock whizz across the river's calm surface.

"When you tell me how you go from tearing her up at a party one night to showing up with her at school two days later." Dearka responded, scooping up another handful of pebbles with his left hand and picking one out to throw with his right.

Yzak grunted in vain, knowing that the only way he would be able to shake off the subject was to submit to his friend's demands. "_God you're a persistent bastard Dearka."_

"It was an arrangement between our parents. She needed a way to get to school and her father asked my mother if she could ride with me. Needless to say, she made up my mind for me; otherwise Ms. Allster would be walking to school."

Dearka reviewed the sentence to see if he could force a joke out of it, but quickly gave up.

"Well, I guess that explains the driving situation, but it doesn't explain why you seem more accepting of her now. She must be growing on you old buddy."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Oh come on Yzak, I'm not at all clueless. I'd have to be a fool not to notice how much more comfortable you were around her today. Why the sudden change of heart?"

Yzak didn't quite know how to answer this question and decided to attempt to change the subject once again.

"Never mind petty bullshit like that Dearka, we have a real issue to discuss here. Today it's about you not me. How in the hell can you be so calm after being jumped by that coward?"

Dearka discarded the remainder of the rocks from his left hand into the river. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and turned his back to his friend. He examined the scenery of the riverside haven that had housed the friendship of these two for over ten years. To Dearka Elsman, there was no place on earth more special to him. This small secluded riverbank area surrounded by forest was the repository of everything that he had cherished about being a child.

His mind drifted off to a simpler time, a time where high school dramas and the stresses of adolescence were still miles away. An era of innocence where his biggest concern was whether or not Yzak could stay over for the night; there were no girlfriends, no muggings, no complications among friends, few disagreements, and no personal struggles to find himself, everything was so much simpler back then.

His gaze came across an old structure, barely standing but still intact, and a warm smile beamed upon his handsome young features. It was a monument of some of the best times of his life, and the fact that its poor craftsmanship had held it together over the years was comforting to his often restless teenage mind. He and Yzak didn't come out here very much anymore, perhaps because they were too old, or maybe it was because they were busy with other things, but the seldom occasions where they did reconvene to their old residence always meant a lot to Dearka. As he observed the old structure, he found himself yearning to return, and deeply regretting the fact that they did not visit very much anymore.

"Do you remember the summer when we worked every day in July to build that?" Dearka asked, gesturing to the remnants of what had once been a small clubhouse.

Yzak was legitimately confused by this random inquiry by his friend, and irritated by the fact that he had been dancing away from discussing the events that occurred after school yet again.

"What does that old wreck have to do with anything?"

"That old _wreck_…" Dearka began, emphasizing the last word to express the mild offence taken by his compatriot's terminology "… is a metaphor for our entire lives, and also the symbol of our friendship."

"I really don't understand what the hell you're getting at here."

"Think about it Yzak. We built that old clubhouse when we were kids; it was sturdy back then, just as we were. It was built during a carefree time where conflict was so minimal, where we didn't have to wake up every morning wondering what new drama our social lives would bring about. All of our hopes and dreams were stable and solid, as was our appreciation for life, back then, everything was perfect and we always got along. But over time everything falls apart and deteriorates, as the clubhouse grows older it begins to fall apart, just as we do. When we grew up, everything started to become problematic, we began to lead our lives down separate paths, and became more inclined to argue, growing more distant from our previous state of perfection every day. There are more things to worry about in older age, and issues that meant nothing to you when everything was stable begin to control your life. Board by board, the structure begins to fall apart, as do our lives. Sure, maybe one day we'll return and repair everything, and it will hold strong for many more years, but eventually it will start to fall apart again. Eventually, it will all collapse, just as we will, and then there will be nothing left."

Yzak found his friend to be acting exponentially unusual, this was not like the carefree joke-slinger that he had known so well, this was a different side of Dearka, one he was not familiar with, one that seemed depressing and pessimistic. He didn't like it. Not at all.

"What the hell is up with you man? You're acting strange."

"I'm not saying that growing up is all bad, it certainly isn't. I'm just saying that I miss those days sometimes that's all. I guess I could have gotten my point across in a much quicker and simpler way, but my thoughts always tend to trail on as I reminisce about our childhood." He turned over his palm and examined an old scar.

"Honestly Dearka what the hell is wrong with you? You just got mugged a couple of hours ago and this is what's on your mind? Why do you keep dodging the damn subject?"

"What is there to discuss? I got attacked from behind and you helped me get my revenge, thank you very much for that, but what else is there to tell? I'd rather not get hung up on it, instead I'd like to just chill out and forget the whole mess."

Yzak was astounded by how collected his friend could be considering the circumstances. He was still infuriated and he hadn't even been the one who had gotten attacked. But it didn't seem as though he was going to be able to stretch the subject any further. As he thought about it, he knew his friend was probably right; all they would do was incessantly yell about the audacious event, there wasn't any real progress to be made.

"Dearka, it doesn't look as though I'm going to get much out of you tonight. I say we head home before all of your half-assed philosophical tangents bore me to tears. Seriously man, if this shit goes on any longer, you're going to get mugged twice in one day."

Dearka looked up at his friend with a playful grin. "Fine, but only if you take me to the Sacred Heart so that we can have dinner first."

A small yet wholesome smile illustrated Yzak's fine young face. In truth he didn't really mind his friend's calm and laid back demeanor that much at all. As a matter of fact, he almost found it refreshing, a smooth contrast to his own hard-edged exterior, but of course, he would never tell Dearka that.

"Fine," Yzak began, "if that's what I've gotta do to escape this, then I guess I don't have much of a choice. Let's go."

Yzak had no idea how his friend could remain so calm and relaxed after being assaulted, what he did have however was a strong sense of justice, and he did not for a second think that Toelle Koenig had received the proper amount of pay back for his heinous actions. Yzak knew that he would have to take matters into his own hands to make sure that would indeed happen, but for now there was no need to focus on that. He had plenty of time to think of what he was going to do and when he was going to do it, and he would be able to make these decisions much more effectively when he was alone. And so for tonight, he would simply enjoy the rest of the night with his friend.


	3. Chapter 3

**Opposites: Suppression**

**A/N: **Her we go, chapter three. This chapter is comprised of most of what I have written since I picked the story back up and pulled myself out of the snag I hit at the end of the last chapter. Hopefully it is still good and keeps the story going strong. Be sure to let me know what you think of this chapter in your reviews and please feel free to offer up some suggestions regarding how you would like to see things pan out. I do of course have a plan for how I want the story to go (and I am working on planning out the final part of the trilogy) but your feedback could help me come up with some excellent ideas that I wouldn't have thought of on my own. I am currently working on beginning the fourth chapter and if all goes as I expect it to the story should be complete after another 2-3 chapters worth of material.

Thanks to Kkornelia for the review of chapter 2!

**Genres:** Drama, Romance

**Rated:** T for language, violence, and themes

**Summary:** Part 2 of the Opposites trilogy. As Yzak and Flay are forced into one another's presence, they begin to realize that they may have misjudged each other. Emotions run wild as things around them spiral out of control while the two young hearts try to deny and contain uncomfortable, unexplainable, and unwelcome feelings.

**Date Started:** Tuesday, March, 29, 2011

**Date Finished:** Ongoing

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Gundam Seed or any of its characters. Nor do I own any of the music referenced in this fic.

_Italics for inner thoughts_

00000

Flay pressed her back against the door behind her and let out a relieving sigh. She found herself slowly sliding towards the floor until she lifted herself up and steadily paced towards the living room, opting instead to seat herself at one of the far more comfortable easy chairs. She had just spent the last few minutes wrapped up in an intensely uncomfortable and unfamiliar situation and it felt so good to finally be able to relax in her own home.

Her head spun around in circles as her mind desperately tried to piece together everything she had experienced over the past few days. She was of course confused, curious, and most of all worried about what had just occurred and why it had happened, but the last thing she wanted was to ask anybody for details, least of all Mirialia, whom Dearka had suggested she speak to. She was still the new girl and still on the outside of her group of friends, and she had no intention of upsetting Mirialia or anyone else by trying to cram herself into situations that clearly had nothing to do with her. At the same time however, she wondered if not saying anything would make it seem like she didn't really care about Mirialia at all. After all weren't friends supposed to support each other in their time of need? Flay knew she wouldn't be able to be of any help even if she did know what was going on. She didn't know what to say, but she was worried about what would happen if she said anything.

As she tried to decide what she was going to do, her thoughts began to trail off to the silver haired boy who lived across the street. She thought of the unfiltered anger that had lit up his face at the site of the attack on his best friend. How he stood so powerful and fearsome before throwing himself into the battle without a moment's hesitation. Flay had indeed been immensely frightened by Yzak Joule as he stormed into the fight. All she could do was stand their paralyzed by fear and helplessly watch while Yzak pounded the boy into his place.

Flay wondered if Yzak had a long history of violence. He didn't seem to be at all out of his element today while he beat the kid to a pulp. He didn't even stop to consider any other options, he just attacked. That seemed like something that someone with a history of violence would do. She had never really interacted with any violent people throughout her life, but she assumed that it was reasonable to think that rashly entering a fight would be the mark of a violent person. She imagined that someone who had no major associations with violence would just stand there in shock, not knowing what to do or how to react, in much the same way that she had done today.

But as she thought about it now, there was a lot that she admired about Yzak Joule and what he did today. He demonstrated an unwavering loyalty for his friend and a selfless disregard for the consequences that he would face for standing up for someone he cared about. As she thought about it she slowly began to understand what her friends were talking about when they told her that if you could get to know him, Yzak Joule was one of the best friends you could ever ask for.

Was it fair to assume that he was a violent man just because of what had happened today? Or had he simply been overcome by his emotions and acted on complete impulse? After all, she did remember Yzak saying that he had known Dearka for many years, and although Dearka appeared to annoy him to no end, Yzak still seemed to see him as a close friend. She couldn't imagine what it would be like seeing your best friend for years being brutalized while everyone just stood by and watched, and right in front of his generous and kind-hearted girlfriend no less!

The more she thought about it, the more reasonable Yzak's actions seemed. It wasn't like the boy had said something offensive and Yzak reacted by smashing his face into the wall. That would have clearly made him an excessively violent and completely unreasonable person, borderline psychotic even. She certainly wouldn't want to be around someone like that at all. But as far as she knew (which really wasn't nearly as much as she would have liked to) Yzak had never done something as crazy as that. It would be unfair for her to stigmatize him as a violent derelict when today was the only real account of violence that she had ever known him to be involved with, and it was an understandable one at that. Toelle was clearly the villain here, what he had done was absolutely deplorable.

Flay felt a strange sensation running deep throughout her body. She suddenly could not shake the image of Yzak's powerful and confident figure standing strong over Toelle. His eyes fierce and deadly yet concerned at the same time, the eyes of a Tigress ready to fight and protect her young at any cost. Those electric blue eyes could pierce through her soul and cause her heart to throb uncontrollably in her chest, and she was sure that they would if she could only stop to take the time to look into them herself. But of course, that would mean standing face to face and staring at Yzak Joule, an action which would certainly lead to his screaming and belittling her. Or perhaps, even worse, what if he simply asked what she was doing? What then? What could she possibly say? Especially considering that she didn't even know the answer herself.

As she slowly drifted into a trance, she envisioned herself walking home in the dark.

_The dim street lights seemed to flicker with every step she took. Too captivated by thoughts of her new life to notice the heavy footsteps closing in around her, she was an easy target for the men dressed in black to grab and pull into the nearest alleyway._

_She struggled to rip out a scream as she desperately tried to squirm herself free, but one of the attackers held a firm grip over her mouth with a dangerous gloved hand. _

"_Such a pity," one of the men began, "a beautiful young girl such as yourself should know better than to walk these streets alone at night."_

"_Fresh blood always tastes so sweet." Another man proclaimed, his voice thick with malice sending a shockwave of absolute terror and helplessness into her heart. _

_He removed the glove from his hand and slowly stroked a cold boney finger down her delicate complexion. She felt her blood freeze to ice as the man's finger ran down her cheek. She was helpless, all she could do now was pray for somebody, anybody to find them and put a halt to their devious intentions. The man began bringing his hand down her neck and seized it in a deadly vice grip. She felt her body starting to fade away into submission as more and more air was disallowed entrance into her lungs. Just as all hope seemed lost, the last of her vision was blinded by the headlights of an impending vehicle._

"_What the fuck!" one of the men yelled, as the gleam of another of the attackers switchblade knives came into view from the light granted by the front of the vehicle._

_The dark figure of the vehicles owner stepped out in front of the lights, blocking out some of the illumination. "You worthless trash, how dare you call yourselves men!"_

_The man with the knife lunged forward with a huge swing, but the nameless hero was already one step ahead, he stopped the attack by grabbing the man's wrist and threw him into the concrete wall. Another one of her attackers tried to capitalize by striking while the hero was open, but he was met with a spinning heel kick into his nose. Another went in for a huge strike, but he dodged it and smashed his elbow into the back of the crook's neck. She felt the death grip around her neck release and she crashed hard onto the pavement as the last remaining fugitive took off running. As she lay on the ground she overheard her savior on the phone._

"_Hello police? You have some trash to come pick up…"_

_She briefly drifted off into a light sleep but found herself reawakened in the arms of a young man. As she focused her gaze to get a visual of her knight in shining armor, she was met by those tantalizing blue eyes and she was overcome by a rush of emotion. She felt the sting of tears welling up in the corners of her eyes and threw herself into his arms. _

"_Oh Yzak, you saved me but why?"_

_Yzak furrowed his brow. "What the hell do you mean why? As if I wouldn't come to the aid of a woman in danger! What the hell kind of man do you think I am?"_

"_But I thought you hated me?" she asked._

_Yzak's tight grimace loosened into a soft, gentle, small as he looked deep into her eyes. "Flay…the truth is-_

Flay snapped upright in her chair as she regained her grip on reality. She pressed her hand against her forehead and brushed the sweat away from her brow.

What the hell was that? Why had she envisioned such an unrealistic and undesirable fantasy? She certainly didn't think that Yzak would ever come to her rescue like that, and even if he did she knew that he would never in a million years hold her and look at her like that. Flay was just fine the way she was, she wanted nothing from Yzak, and she would probably dye of fear or embarrassment if he ever acted like that in real life.

And even if she did desire him, which she certainly didn't, what kind of twisted fantasy was that? It was like something out of one of those terrible romance novels you would find at the airport bookstores. She had never been one to romanticize violence. In fact, Flay had always found herself horribly uncomfortable by the thought of violence.

Surely her mind was playing some treacherous trick on her. Why would she fantasize about someone she was uncomfortable around saving her from a horrifying predicament by using violence, something that she also found very uncomfortable?

She took a deep breath and calmed herself down. She convinced herself that it meant nothing. Yzak was a belligerent, ignorant, jerk who hated her to the core.

But if that was the case then why had he started being more receptive and friendly around her lately? Why didn't he seem to mind driving her into school? Why had he been so considerate today when he still stopped to pick her up and drop her off despite all that had happened before hand? Why had he been staring at her through the mirror on the whole drive home, and why did he acknowledge her when she sent him that glance before he left? Why couldn't she get him out of her mind?

Suddenly Flay became overwhelmed with worry and guilt. What could he be doing now? What if the boy who had attacked Dearka had gathered a group of friends together and hunted him down for a revenge strike? What if he lost his temper while driving and got into a horrific accident?

What if she had been severely misjudging Yzak? What if he had simply been having a hard time of things lately? Was it really fair for her to cast him as a cynical and hateful monster? Was that even how she really felt about him in the first place? If so, than why did she find herself thinking about him so much, admiring him, and even worrying about him?

Flay struggled to tame her rampaging thoughts and tried to get a hold of herself. Yes she was being unfair by judging Yzak in such a way without knowing him long enough, and yes her initial impressions of him might have been flawed, but that did not mean that he and Flay were friends or even acquaintances, at least not now. Yzak certainly didn't care too much about her at all, he still probably only tolerated her simply because she was friends with everybody else in his social circle. She had been foolish to let herself think that he suddenly might see her as a friend just because he seemed to hate her less. If anything, Flay concluded, he was simply getting used to her presence, he still found her insufferable, he had just started to tolerate her out of convenience that was all.

She told herself that she felt the same way about him, he was still a complete ass, but she was just getting used to him being around because they share mutual friends. She didn't care when she saw him next and she certainly didn't care about his eyes. The two were opposites, they would never be friends.

Somehow this brought her back to the original content of her thoughts and she remembered that she still hadn't thought about what to say to Mirialia. She picked up her phone and began to write out a text.

"Hey Miri, I just wanted to check up on you and see if you were okay. I won't ask you to tell me what the problem is, but I want you to know that I am here to help and support you in any way I can if you need me. You have been a great friend to me since I have arrived and I owe you a lot. I think that you are a truly great person."

She read the message over at least five times before hitting send and hoping that she had said the right thing.

She glanced up at the clock, 6:02, her father would be home soon, she should put something on for dinner, he would definitely appreciate that.

As she walked to the kitchen, a light smile crawled across her _face "Of course it would be wonderful if we ever did become friends…"_ she thought_ "…but I guess I'll just have to wait and see."_

00000

"Of course, I have been informed of the whole account by many witnesses and it is only fair that Mr. Toelle Koenig receive the same punishment that I have given you."

Yzak held the phone steadily against his ear as he listened to the message left by Principal Le Crueset and stared at his mother, who stood directly across from him with her arms crossed and her face furrowed into a disappointed frown.

"I sincerely hope that in the future you will be able to resolve your issues in a non-violent manner. Otherwise I will have no choice but to increase the severity of your punishment. Good day Mr. Joule"

The click and dial tone that followed signaled the end of the message, but Yzak had not yet hung up the phone.

_Five days banned from school, and then three more restricted to the suspension room with no breaks. _

Yzak had certainly expected a severe punishment but he was prepared to deal with any consequences. In his eyes he had taken the only possible course of action. He had done the right thing, and despite what others may think, he was proud of what he had done. Now that he knew how much time he would be missing, he had to figure out what to do over the next week.

"Yzak!" his mother snapped and Yzak suddenly remembered that he had to explain himself to his mother. For Yzak Joule, this was by far the only consequence that he was worried about. He stopped staring into space and adjusted his gaze so that he was now looking his mother straight in the eye.

"Well, what do you have to say for yourself?" Ezalia demanded with a stern look on her face.

Yzak should have expected his mother to be upset, but he couldn't help but be slightly offended that his mother had seemed so disappointed in him. She knew the whole story and although he knew she wouldn't be happy, he expected her to understand. Ezalia had been very strict throughout his entire life, but she had also always been fair. Without realizing it Yzak found himself nearly yelling as he tried to force his mother to listen to reason.

"What would you expect me to do mother! That fucking coward attacked my best friend from behind, and right in front of Mirialia nonetheless! Am I just supposed to stand back and watch like everyone else!"

Ezalia was taken aback by her son's sudden outburst but her expression certainly didn't show it.

"Yzak!" she snapped back at him "Lower your voice and show me some proper respect, and watch your tongue! I will not stand here and listen to you if you are going to act like such a child!"

Yzak, not knowing what to say and too ashamed of himself to face her, opted to silently look away and wait for her to continue.

"I'm not saying that you shouldn't have helped Dearka, you know that I could never be so unreasonable as to scorn you for helping your friend. But what were you thinking! You just threw yourself into a fight without even stopping to consider the gravity of your actions. What if you had gotten hurt? Or what if you had lost control of yourself and went too far? You could have found yourself locked up in prison! You would have ruined your whole life and future! And then how do you think that your friends would feel? How do you think I would feel if my only son had been taken away from me because of some stupid high school feud?"

It was at this point that Ezalia began to lose her resolve. She bit the corner of her lip and looked away as hesitant tears began to fight their way out from the corners of her eyes. Yzak now had a better idea of why his mother was so upset and he began to feel like garbage as a result. His mother was right. Yzak hadn't even stopped to consider what it would be like for his mother if he had gotten himself into trouble. He was all that she had left in her life, his father had lost his life years ago, and her parents had died before he was even born. Two of her three siblings had died in a terrible car accident while they were in high school and the remaining brother had fallen into a deep depression as a result, no one had heard from him in years. Ezalia Joule had dealt with the pain of loss for the better part of her life, and although she was an incredibly strong woman, there was no way she could handle a separation from her only son. He had been very inconsiderate, but it simply wasn't possible to think of such things in the heat of the moment. Yzak did not regret what he had done, but he did regret upsetting his mother, and he would make sure that if something were to happen again, he would go to great lengths to ensure that she didn't find out about it.

He moved closer and wrapped a comforting arm around her. "You're right, I was very inconsiderate and I apologize. I promise that I won't be so rash next time."

Ezalia, not being one to let her emotions overflow, pulled herself together and wiped away her tears.

"I won't punish you for what you did, but you must not do something like this again, you must be careful. And also, since you will be home all week, I would appreciate it if you could take care of some house work during the day."

Yzak nodded in acceptance of this.

"And I do expect you to still get up in the mornings and drive Ms. Allster to school, and also to bring her back home in the afternoons."

Yzak silently scolded himself, how could he have possibly forgotten to take that into account. Nonetheless, he knew that it was a duty he would have to fulfill, and he told his mother he would have no problem doing so without raising even the slightest objection. He then excused himself in order to head upstairs and listen to some music. Ezalia acknowledged his request but advised him to head over to the Allster household to make sure that Flay knew he would still be transporting her to and from the school.

Reluctantly, Yzak exited the household and made his way across the street. As he walked toward the Allster household Yzak thought to himself that his current situation may in fact be good for him. He still needed to interact with Flay in order to substantiate his claims of hatred in a way that would be acceptable to the collective pain in the ass that he called friends, and having the days off from school would mean that he could do so without having to spend the entire day around that irritating girl.

If he had stopped to think it over, perhaps Yzak would have noticed how his expressions of his opinion on the girl had gradually gotten much less harsh over the past week. She had started out being 'worthless', 'pathetic', and 'weak' and now she was just 'irritating'.

On top of that, he would have plenty of time to decide what he was going to do about that pathetic coward. Given that Toelle would be out of school for the same amount of time, Yzak would have less to worry about the chances of something important happening during his absence. And he would also get to miss out on the incessant bitching and desperate cries for attention of Lunamaria Hawke.

Yzak was so preoccupied with his thoughts of the oncoming week that he almost walked straight into the front door of the Allster residence. _"Idiot" _he chided himself, and rang the doorbell.

00000

"Luna would you please just calm down and listen to me!"

He was met with a series of rude expletives followed by a dial tone. He heaved a tired sigh of annoyance and defeat. He ran his hand through his brilliant blue locks and nearly yanked them out of his skull out of frustration. Athrun Zala was not a short tempered man, but there was only so much of this that he could take. She had been assaulting him with phone call after phone call for the past four hours, relentlessly screaming about how he was the worst possible type of human being imaginable one minute and then breaking down into tears and begging him to take her back the next.

Athrun wished that he could get mad, scream, and tell her off, surely that is what Yzak would do. That would probably be easier and might even put an end to all of this incessant screeching. But he knew that he had no right to be mad at her, the only person he could be mad at was himself. He expected her to act in such a way and he couldn't blame her for getting emotional. She was right, everything was his fault. It was his mistake to date Lunamaria in the first place. He knew that he didn't really have deep romantic feelings for her; he was just using her to try and escape facing his true feelings for Cagalli. It was selfish and unfair and he deserved every harsh word Luna had in her arsenal as punishment for his actions; which is why he hadn't just turned his phone off and shut her down hours ago.

He really hated that things had to turn out this way. The truth was that he really did care about her, though not in the way he should have for someone he was in a relationship with. He felt terribly guilty for hurting her, which made him question if a man as gutless as himself truly deserved a woman as perfect as Cagalli.

On top of hurting her, his selfishness had also torn a huge rift between Lunamaria and his other friends. They didn't need that; they shouldn't have to lose a friend just because he had done something so foolish.

He wished that he could just get her to calm down long enough to hear him out. He wanted to apologize to her and explain how he made a mistake. He wanted her to know that he would still love to be her friend, but that he understood if she hated him.

There was no way that he could ever make things up to her, and so he would sit here tonight and listen to everything that she had to say, whether she meant it or not. The least he could do was allow her to vent, and then maybe, after she had gotten it all out, she would give him a chance to try and make peace.

His phone began ringing again and he hit the answer button and held it to his ear, bracing himself for another round of Lunamaria's rage. He did not say a word as he knew that it was futile to try and intervene again.

"Athrun? Are you there?"

Much to his surprise, it was not Lunamaria's voice, but Nicol's.

"Oh, hi Nicol. What is it?" he responded.

"What have you been doing Athrun? I've been trying to call you for the past four hours but your phone keeps going to voice mail! I have sent you several texts but you haven't responded!"

Athrun was suddenly struck by worry, Nicol sounded like he was in a panic. Something serious must have happened.

"I'm sorry; Luna's been tying up my phone with her emotional rants. What's the problem?"

"It's Dearka!"

"What's wrong with him?" Athrun asked with great concern.

"He was attacked by Toelle from behind right after we left the school today!"

Athrun felt his heart seize in his chest as a hundred terrible possibilities flooded his mind.

"What? Please Nicol, tell me, is he okay?"

"He's alright. Luckily Yzak stepped in before Toelle could do any serious damage. Listen, he's at Mirialia's right now, but he wants to meet up and talk with you and me in about an hour or so. Can you pick us up?"

What a terrible night, first Luna and now this? Everything was relatively fine for everyone before the end of the weekend. Well, everyone except for Yzak, who seemed to equate Flay's arrival to some form of cruel and unusual punishment, but that was just Yzak being Yzak. How could so much go so wrong in such a short period of time?

"No problem, I'll pick you up at 9:30, is that alright?"

"Yes." Nicol replied.

They said their goodbyes and hung up. Athrun made sure that he caught up with the huge backlog of text messages that he had received over the past few hours before shutting off his phone and placing it in his pocket. Luna had had plenty of time to vent tonight; she would have to wait until he was done with Dearka.

He laid back on his bed and focused his attention on the picture of his beautiful Cagalli which sat upon his bedside table. He studied it with sad green eyes. Until he had atoned for what he had done to Lunamaria, he had no right to be with her. Even if he tried to deny his responsibilities, he and Cagalli would never be able to have the relationship that they had always wanted as long as things remained this way.

00000

Flay placed a fresh cup of tea next to her father's slouching figure. He sat restlessly reviewing a pile of papers, still wearing the beige colored suit that he had worn to work that day.

George Allster was clearly stressed over his work, but that didn't stop him from taking a moment to appreciate his daughter's small act of kindness by thanking her and giving her hand a comforting squeeze.

"Thank you very much Flay. This is certainly going to help me fight through the rest of this paper work. You are so very kind and considerate."

Flay looked down at her father with sympathy clouding her exquisite blue gray eyes. She was just about to open her mouth to say something when the doorbell rang.

"Now who could that be?" Mr. Allster wondered, removing his glasses and wiping them off with a small cloth. "Flay, could you please be a dear and get that for me?"

"No problem daddy."

Her father thanked her as she made her way to the door.

Flay felt as though she had just walked into a brick wall when she opened the door to find Yzak Joule standing on her front porch. She certainly didn't expect to see him again today. Yzak seemed to sense her confusion and thus decided to quickly speak up and get things over with before the situation got too uncomfortable.

"Hey, I just stopped by to let you know that I won't be in school over the next week, but I'll still get up to take you there in the mornings, and I'll stop by to pick you up in the afternoon."

As he began to turn away, Flay was suddenly met with an overwhelming desire to stay with him. She wanted to have a talk with him to try and learn more about him. She needed to know if she was right about him when she was thinking earlier. He had surprised the hell out of her over the course of the day, so much so that she was starting to reform her opinion of him as a person. Not only had he been nicer to her today, but he had also remembered to stop and pick her up this afternoon, and now here he was at her front door, taking the time to inform her that despite his absence, he would still go out of his way to transport her to and from school.

What was the worst that could happen? Even if he angrily shut her down it would just give her more evidence to think that he was a jerk. But she knew he wouldn't do that, she couldn't explain why, but she had grown much more comfortable around him today and expected that even if he did decline, he would do so respectfully.

"Um… Yzak?" she aked.

He stopped and glanced at her over his shoulder. "Yeah?"

"Would you like to go for a walk with me?"

Now it was his turn to be confused. Why the hell would she ask him to do something like that? Wasn't she supposed to be terrified just by the sight of him? Why the sudden turn around? Surely she couldn't have grown so much more comfortable around him after just one day of effort to seem friendly on his part.

His instinct was to briskly decline her offer and return home without further acknowledgement. But before doing so he was able to catch his tongue and think it over. He had to remind himself that the only way he could possibly shut those dumbasses up was by interacting with her, and the more he did so the closer he would come to completing his initial goal.

This could be a golden opportunity for him. What if she tried to get him to explain the whole situation involving Mirialia, Dearka, and Toelle to her? Then perhaps he could cast her as a nosy bitch and be done with her for good. Even if he did need more than that, it would at least be a start. Besides, he didn't really have much else to do tonight. Sure, there were plenty of things he would rather do then spend more time with Flay Allster, many of which were not pleasant things at all, but sometimes in life you have to put practicality before pleasure.

He turned to face her and shrugged. "Sure, why not?" he said.

A warm smile lit up her delicate features, and Yzak really wished that he wouldn't have been so struck by her beauty in that moment.

"Let me grab my coat." She chimed, and turned into her closet to fetch it from the hook.

"_Smiling? Why the hell is she smiling?"_

For the first time Yzak was faced with a nagging question crawling around in the back of his mind. What if he was wrong? What if all this effort only went to prove that she wasn't so bad at all?

"Let's go!" Flay said in a cheery voice while sending a pleasant smile his way.

"_How foolish."_ he thought to himself. _"Of course I won't be wrong, I'm always right!"_

They descended the steps and began walking down the road, side by side, together.


	4. Chapter 4

**Opposites: Suppression**

**A/N:** Alright chapter four. I originally intended for this chapter to be longer and include more than just their walk, but last night it all just seemed to flow so well when I put this chapter to paper and I am eager to see what my readers have to say about it. See here's the thing about this chapter, although it felt amazing when I wrote it last night, and still seems great as I re-read and edit it, I am not really sure whether it is any good or not, and I'm really relying on you guys to let me know. This chapter could either make or break the rest of the entire story, so I'm really hoping that you all enjoy this chapter and that it leaves you looking forward to more. This chapter has a lot more dialogue than the previous one, and so hopefully it doesn't seem like there is too much introspection this time.

Thank you ever so much to Kkornelia, WestAnimeBrigade, and missfk21 for the reviews. And please let me know what you think about this chapter. I really hope it's good.

**Genres: **Drama, Romance

**Rated:** T for language, violence, and themes

**Summary:** Part 2 of the Opposites trilogy. As Yzak and Flay are forced into one another's presence, they begin to realize that they may have misjudged each other. Emotions run wild as things around them spiral out of control while the two young hearts try to deny and contain uncomfortable, unexplainable, and unwelcome feelings.

**Date Started: **Tuesday, March, 29, 2011

**Date Finished: **Ongoing

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Gundam Seed or any of its characters. Nor do I own any of the music referenced in this fic.

_Italics for inner thoughts_

00000

They had continued to walk side by side in silence for several minutes before Flay finally decided to speak up and break the ice.

"So how was your time with Dearka? Is he okay? I was sort of worried about you guys." Flay made sure to turn her head in order to make eye contact with her companion.

She was relieved to see that Yzak did not walk with the same stiff and tense posture that he had sported on their previous walk. His body was far more relaxed and he kept a steady pace at her side rather than furiously stomp ahead of her like he had done the week before. He clearly seemed far more comfortable with her this time, which in turn made her much more comfortable as well. Most assuring of all to Flay was that he was not wearing that awful scowl that had always taken over his countenance whenever she was with him before. His face was far more pleasant to observe now, and it really highlighted how strikingly handsome his facial features actually were. A handsome face was easy to overlook when it was twisted into a portrait of disdain and fury. If the two had been on friendlier terms, or if Flay's personality was far bolder, she would have surely told him that he shouldn't ruin such a pleasant face by masking it with that evil look all of the time. But instead she simply giggled to herself.

"_Maybe someday I'll let him know, if by some chance we ever do become friends."_

Yzak glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes as he tried to think of how he should respond to her question. He was surprised when he saw that as far as he could tell, Flay seemed to have a look of genuine concern painted across her delicate face.

"_She must be a fantastic liar; she even manages to make her facial expressions look convincing." _

Seriously, worried? Why the hell would she be worried about him? And why the hell did she want to go for a walk with him tonight in the first place? He still couldn't figure that one out.

"_She must feel as though she has some obligation to associate with me because we have mutual friends."_ he told himself.

That must be it; there was no other reasonable explanation. Dearka might be stupid enough to fall for it, but Yzak was far too intelligent to believe that someone who clearly had no personal connections to him what-so-ever would actually be worried about him. If she had been worried about anything, it would probably just be about how she was going to get to school tomorrow when he was suspended.

But there was something else in her expression that puzzled him, something that he couldn't explain. All he could think of to describe it in words was a sort of radiant glow. He did not know how to comprehend it, and so he simply dismissed it as some part of her clever deception.

He remembered how well being receptive to what she said and talking about their friends had worked earlier in the day, and so he decided to provide her with an honest answer to her question. But if he dug into her supposed worry for him, then he might be able to uncover her façade. If he was able to do that, then he would surely be able to complete his mission tonight and spare himself a lot of trouble down the road.

"He's fine," Yzak began "that damn fool, you would never be able to tell that he had just been mugged by the way he was acting. I swear he was more concerned with you and I than what had happened to him."

Flay smiled a little at this. Fighting could bring out the worst in people; it could transform them and bring out the ugliest aspects of their personalities. It was nice to know that Dearka was still the same old laid back joker and pest that she had known him as. Even though she had not gotten to talk to her yet, Flay imagined that the best help Mirialia could get would come from the Dearka she knew and loved. If Dearka was hell bent on revenge, it would only make this situation a lot more difficult for her. Flay took comfort in the fact that her best friend would probably be fine, as long as she had her Dearka there to hold her.

"So what were you worried about anyway?" he asked her, eagerly anticipating her response.

Flay didn't even hesitate to answer.

"I was scared for you. I have no idea how intense this situation is, so I thought that maybe that boy would get some people together and try to attack you again. I mean, I don't know if he hangs out with a rough crowd or anything like that, but I was worried that if he did then you and Dearka could get seriously hurt." Her voice was shaky and laced with genuine concern.

Yzak detected no hint of deception in her statement. She had done an incredible job at making herself seem legitimately worried about him. So much so that he even thought that she might even be telling the truth. From the looks of things, he would not be able to find fault with her on these grounds, but that didn't mean that he had given up yet.

"I see…" he said, careful not to let his overall skepticism of her claims seep into his voice. "So, did you ask Miriallia to fill you in on the situation like Dearka suggested?"

"Well… not really." She replied.

This could be it he thought. If she asked him to inform her of the entire situation then he might be able to start building a case to present to his friends.

"I sent her a text to let her know that I hoped she was okay and that I would be here to support her if she needed me too. I also thanked her for being such a great friend to me over the past week. But I didn't want to ask her to explain everything to me. It's really none of my business, and I imagine that the last thing she needs right now is for someone to ask her to fill them in on something that has been so troubling for her. She hasn't replied yet, and I haven't expected her to."

She let out a soft sigh. "I just really hope that she's okay. She's with Dearka now right? Didn't you say you were going to drop him off when you guys were done?"

"_Damn…"_ She hadn't given him anything that he could use to try and portray her as a nosy gossip addict. In fact, so far it seemed as if she really wasn't even all that curious about the backstory and she showed no signs of asking him for the details.

"Yeah, I grabbed them some dinner on the way. I was going to eat with them, but I wanted them to be able to have as much time to themselves as possible tonight. I didn't get to say too much to her, but now that she has Dearka with her she should be alright."

"I'm so glad to hear that, I was really worried about her. I sure hope that you're right."

"Don't worry." He reassured her. "As long as Dearka is alright, she'll be okay. I imagine that she is just more scared than anything, and seeing him should be enough to set her at ease."

"Yeah, I'm sure you're right." She said.

Silence plagued them for the next few minutes, until Flay decided to speak up again.

"Uhm…Yzak?" Flay replied timidly with a light smile on her face.

"Yeah?" he asked, hoping that maybe he could finally get some sort of lead from her.

"I uh… I just wanted to say that I really appreciate that even after everything that happened today, you still stopped to pick me up and bring me home."

"Don't mention it." He said, slightly appreciating the acknowledgement even though he only did it because he felt he had a duty to do so and not because he cared about her getting home.

"No really." She said. "I'm glad that you thought enough of me to remember not to leave me there even though your mind must have been going wild. You didn't have to stop, and it would have certainly been understandable if you hadn't, but you did, and that means a lot to me."

She turned to him with a beautifully bright smile on her face. His heart skipped a beat and his throat seemed to swell and dry. In that moment she was immaculate. Even he had to stop and admire such a stunning natural beauty, and he resented her for looking so good.

He forced himself to regain his composure but he could not make himself look away, and he could not stop the warmth from spreading throughout his body. Once he had gotten a hold of himself, he admitted that he had made the right decision by picking her up. She seemed to think much more highly of him because of it, which was going to make his mission a lot easier.

But it could be so easy to forget about his mission while he was captivated by those beautiful blue-gray eyes. And if he was just a little bit weaker, a little less stubborn, or a little more aware of his feelings, he would have done just that. But he was stubborn, and he was strong, and he had no idea how to connect with feelings towards a woman, and so he would not submit so easily.

"It's okay." He assured her, and forcing a smile across his face had never been quite so easy or felt quite so natural. "You're right, my mind was wild, and I could barely contain my anger, but I knew that I couldn't leave you behind. That would have been selfish and unfair, so I made sure I stopped."

It sickened him to say something so god damn nice to her, and it appalled him that he was able to say it so easily and so smoothly, but he knew that it was the right thing to do.

Flay looked away to hide the streak of red that surely would have lit up her face as butterflies ran rampant in her stomach. Why did she feel so giddy? This feeling wasn't that same feeling of relief that he was starting to act friendly towards her, this was the kind of feeling that a school girl would get when her crush looked at her.

But why did she feel this way about Yzak? It was just a smile, she had been smiled at by plenty of guys before but she never felt like this. But it wasn't just a smile, it was his smile, the same smile that had struck her so much at Cagalli's party, but this time it was slightly different, this time it felt so much more personal, and so much more real. It made it so much easier for her to say all of the things she needed to say.

"You know, I was terribly frightened by what had happened today. It was incredibly shocking, and I have always been uncomfortable and scared by the sight of violence. Even in movies." She admitted, giggling to herself at the thought of how silly such a thing must have sounded to him. "But I must say that the more that I thought about it, the more I really admire what you did today. Not because you acted through violence, there isn't really anything admirable about watching someone attack another, but because you stood up for your friend without a second thought. When I thought about what you did, I realized that you were an incredibly loyal and caring person."

Loyal? Caring? His mind started racing to try and understand the feelings that arouse from hearing this woman say those things about him.

"And I also realized," she began returning her smile to him "that what everyone has told me about you really is true."

Yzak cursed himself for feeling so good when he saw her smile again. And he cursed himself for making her so fond of him in such a short time.

Because suddenly he wasn't so sure anymore. He started acting so friendly towards her because he knew that if he learned more about who she was, he would certainly hate everything about her, and his friends could never accuse him of pushing people away and being so quick to judge again. But now he wasn't certain. Now he was just confused. Because why did it feel so amazing to see her smile at him? And why had he let his guard down so much that she could make such an impact from such a small act. He didn't know anymore, he wasn't sure, and it all happened so quickly, which caused his confidence to fail him. He couldn't help but follow her.

"Oh?" he asked "And what does everyone keep telling you?"

Flay looked into his eyes, her thoughts hadn't deceived her; they were every bit as breathtaking as she had envisioned.

"That you aren't always the nicest or most sensitive person in the world. And sometimes your rough exterior can be hard to see past, but underneath it all you really are a perfect friend. What you did for Dearka today convinced me that they were right. It proved that you care enough about him to put yourself at risk for him and that you would do anything to help him when he is in need. What I saw today wasn't a violent, arrogant, and insolent, jerk who enjoyed beating somebody up, I saw a powerful and proud man who enjoyed helping his friend."

He stood as a prisoner to her eyes and smile, wondering where she was going with this, scorched by the inexplicable fire burning inside of him.

"And that is why I asked you out for a walk tonight. I want to get to know that man. When you were so nice to me this morning, it left me with a feeling that I couldn't explain. At first I thought that it was simply relief; relief that you seemed to be getting used to me being around. But now, the more I think about it, I felt that way because deep down, no matter how much you seem like a complete opposite to me, I want to be your friend, and today, for the first time since we first met, that appealed to me as a real possibility. I know that we got off to a bad start, but I think that my first impressions of you were flawed, and I want to learn more about who you are."

Yzak was at a loss for words; his heart was threatening to explode in his chest. How could he be so careless? He had never stopped to calculate what he might do when or if something like this had occurred. In his mind, when he set out on this quest he would be prepared for anything that anyone had to throw at him, but he wasn't prepared for this.

"Yzak? Can I ask you something? And can you be honest?" she requested, smiling at him with hopeful eyes.

"Uh, yeah, I guess so…" he replied, completely unsure of what she was going to ask, or what he was going to say to her when she asked it.

"What do you really think of me?"

Not that. Anything but that. Yzak knew that he had absolutely nothing to say. She would expect some sort of deep and heart felt confession much like she had just expressed, but there was nothing for him to confess. Because now Yzak realized that he really had no idea what he thought of Flay Allster. A week ago he was so sure he had her all figured out. He hated her; there was no other way to put it. As far as he was concerned she was a pathetic teenage girl, the complete opposite of himself, and thus someone that he never wanted to associate with. But now he didn't know. Now as he stood here next to her with his heart uncontrollably throbbing and his throat constricted shut, he realized that he really didn't know anything about her at all. He really had no reason for hating her, or even disliking her, because he knew nothing that he could hate about her.

And as a result all of his strength had gone. Now as she looked him straight in the eye, anxiously awaiting what he had to say, he was frozen by fear, something completely unfamiliar to him, something he didn't know how to handle. And now for the first time he thought of what it must have felt like to be Flay Allster a week ago. Coming from the place where she had lived all of her life and stepping into the unknown, completely uncertain of what her new life would bring. This must have been exactly how she had felt. No wonder she seemed so weak and pathetic. Right now, he actually felt weak and pathetic for the first time in his life, and fear was why, fear of the unknown.

Suddenly, just when it seemed that he had no other option but to give in and admit that he was wrong, something snagged Flay's foot and she tripped, heading straight for a nasty fall into the muddy ditch on the side of the road. On instinct, Yzak immediately reached out and snatched her arm, preventing her from taking a bath in a huge puddle of mud.

As he pulled her back onto the shoulder of the road his hand slowly slid down and met hers.

For a moment, they just stood there. Silence holding them in place as the evening sky with its thousands of shining stars provided the perfect backdrop for a scene in any love story. The feel of his touch against hers, her skin so silky and soft, his so rugged and course yet still so gentle. Trapped in each other's eyes; blue gray and steel blue telling a story that words would forever be at a loss to articulate.

But then it was gone. Just like that the moment slipped away. But how perfect it had been while it lasted, and how amazing it could have been if only it never had to fade away.

Her face lit up with red and she skittishly looked away from his eyes and to the gravel.

"Th-Thank you very much…"

He dropped her hand and turned away.

"Clumsy girl…" he said softly, without even a hint of condescension in his voice


End file.
